


Cooking

by Dedicate Kiwicrocus (cranky__crocus)



Series: SMACKDOWN '11 R2, R3, Final - CIRCLECEST [25]
Category: Emelan - Tamora Pierce
Genre: F/F, Gen, Goldenlake, smackdown
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-10
Updated: 2011-06-10
Packaged: 2017-10-20 07:37:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/210315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cranky__crocus/pseuds/Dedicate%20Kiwicrocus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"But Sandry and Briar are cooking together and I want our fire expert with us."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for SMACKDOWN at Goldenlake: fiefgoldenlake.proboards.com
> 
> This may be because I can't cook.

            “Tris—mmh—Tris, I was _working_ ,” Daja complained as she dropped another metal disk into the cool water beside her.

            “Yes,” Tris agreed, grinning against Daja’s neck, “you _were_. But Sandry and Briar are cooking together and I want our fire expert with us.”

            “Expert,” Daja repeated with a huff. She snorted. “You’re trying to flatter.”

            “Is it working?”

            Daja turned in Tris’ grasp and caught the woman’s lips. “It might be. Try again.”

            “We’ll never manage to cook a thing without you, Daja. We’re utterly helpless.” Tris rolled her eyes and pinched Daja’s bottom. “How about now?”

            “Maybe.” But Daja’s feet were moving toward the door.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’ll stab our dinner!”

Sandry and Briar were bickering in the Cheeseman House kitchen when Daja and Tris entered the area.

            “Honestly, if you come back from Irod with all these silly ideas in your mind, how am I supposed to cook you _anything?_ ” Sandry huffed. She poked at the hearth fire with the metal rod.

            Briar grabbed it. “You’ll stab our dinner!”

            “What, are you worried it isn’t already dead?” Sandry bumped her hip against his; he bumped back.

            “Since it’s _cornbread_ , no, I’m not particularly worried.”

            Tris squeezed Daja’s hand and pulled the woman down to her height, where she whispered, “I may have brought you as much for company as for fire mastery.”

            Daja grinned and inspected the ashes with her mind. She could feel the cornbread wrapped within the ashes, as some cultures did to cook the bread. “Do you two need some help?” she inquired, innocent and light.

            Jade green and cornflower blue eyes fixed on her. “No!” their owners spoke at once.

            Daja just laughed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Maybe they’ll learn, someday.' 'I half hope not.'

Daja busied herself with cooking the meat as Sandry and Briar bickered over the bread. Daja was most trusted with meat chores, for she could tell when the heat had reached it thoroughly enough to be entirely cooked. She laughed to herself as she worked; she wondered how much of her friends’ bickering was merely because they had missed each other.

            Tris hovered behind her. “Is there something I can help with?”

            “The vegetables haven’t been cut,” Daja answered as she noticed them to her left. “I don’t know what the bicker-bodies intended, but I think we should stir-fry them.”

            “As long as you do it.” Tris arranged the vegetables and retrieved the knife. “You’re the only one who can stand close enough, most of the time.”

            They smiled to each other as they worked, occasionally chuckling over a comment from Sandry or Briar. By the time the vegetables were cut and the meat was well underway with its heating, Tris and Daja were not surprised to turn and find the two others kissing.

            _I’m glad you brought me inside_ , Daja sent to Tris. Her dark eyes were bright with amusement. _They may have burned the house down._

            Tris cut them a glance and shook her head, grinning. _Maybe they’ll learn, someday._

 _I half hope not._


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She smiled and placed the plates on the table.

Daja finished heating the vegetables in the pan over the hearth just as she sensed the meat and cornbread—buried within the ashes—were done. She smiled wide to herself.

            “You managed the timing,” Tris articulated for her; the pride was clear in the woman’s voice. “You’ve been working at that for a while.”

            “I have,” Daja agreed. She removed the pan—Tris winced at the contact, for it would have burned her—and placed it on the counter. She retrieved the cornbread and meat with equal ease; she called off the ashes and placed a disk of cornbread on each plate, followed by servings of vegetables.

            Tris sliced the meat, pleased there was something she could do, and lay them over the bread and vegetables.

            _Sandry, Briar_ , she called to them in the lounging area, where they were canoodling after their hand in making the bread. _Dinner’s ready_.

            Briar raced in.

A giggling and blushing Sandry entered soon after. She smiled, bright and beautiful—or so Daja and Tris thought—and clapped her hands together. “It smells _glorious_.”

            “Thank Daja,” Tris declared. She stuck Briar with a look but it was dampened slightly by the hint of a grin. “You two were certainly distracted enough…”

            “But it’s set now, and that’s what’s important,” Daja interrupted. She smiled and placed the plates on the table.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They each, in their own way, appreciated quiet Circle meals.

Daja pulled two chairs out from under the kitchen table; Tris and Sandry took them with a gracious nod and a smile. The remaining two chairs jumped toward Briar; Daja grinned at him and the wooden chairs. She sat as he did.

            “What would the Pebbled Sea residents think to see us four Great Mages in such domestic pursuits?” Tris inquired, eyes fierce with amusement over her spectacles. She thought of Briar and Sandry forming circles of cornbread, herself cutting vegetables and Daja heating the lot.

            “I would hope the Pebbled Sea is more concerned with getting food down their own traps,” Briar decided as he tucked into his meal. He groaned at the food and moved to eat faster; Daja thumped him on the head, lightly.

            “Make it last,” she directed him. He grinned sheepishly and swallowed, but took care with his next bites. At least a cook always knew that Briar’s reaction could be trusted.

            “I think they would find it mundanely normal,” Sandry answered in response to Tris’ question. “Lark, Rosethorn, Frostpine and Niko all eat normally—”

            “Niko’s finicky,” Tris corrected, but she smiled nonetheless. “Though I wonder if we think it’s normal just because we grew up with great mages—and remember us when we discovered it! Others may expect great mages to eat grandiose meals.”

            Briar indicated his plate with his fork. “This _is_ a grandiose meal—any good food is. Some great mages get fat eating delicacies three times a day, but once they’re great only in magic and not in deed, people tend to forget about ‘em.”

            The other three laughed and agreed. They each, in their own way, appreciated quiet Circle meals.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! C: Hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
